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Edmund
A. Kelly,
Catholic
priest and
college
administrator,
was born in
County Galway,
Ireland, on
December 7,
1870. He
received a
bachelor of
arts degree
from Mungret
College in
Ireland and
studied
graduate
theology at
Mount St.
Mary's of the
West Seminary
in Cincinnati,
Ohio. He
subsequently
moved to
Galveston,
Texas, to live
in the rectory
of St. Mary's
Cathedral.qv
His internship
was personally
supervised by
Nicholas A.
Gallagher,qv
bishop of the
Diocese of
Galveston, who
ordained him
to the
priesthood on
July 2, 1899.
Father Kelly
was then made
assistant to
the cathedral
parish under
its pastor,
Msgr. James
Kirwin,qv
and placed in
charge of
missions at
Alvin,
Dickinson,
Smith Point,
Groveton, and
La Porte. On
New Year's Day
1903 he was
transferred to
Port Arthur,
where he
established
St. Mary's
Parish, the
first Catholic
parish in
town, and
built a church
and rectory.
From St.
Mary's, Father
Kelly traveled
by bicycle
across the
county to
Hamshire to
care for the
Catholic
community.
He
was
transferred to
Waco on April
25, 1910, to
pastor Our
Lady of the
Assumption
Parish. He was
named a
diocesan
consultor on
the same day.
In Waco he
purchased
property and
built a new
church. In
1919 he was
transferred to
St. Anthony's
Church in
Beaumont,
where he added
marble columns
and extensive
art work and
built a new
rectory,
convent, and
high school.
The resultant
St. Anthony
parish school
system of
twelve grades
was fully
accredited in
1925 by the
Texas
Education
Agency.qv
Many
honors came to
Kelly during
these years.
He was named
diocesan vicar
of religious,
then dean of
the Beaumont
area. The pope
made him a
domestic
prelate
(monsignor),
and Bishop
Christopher E.
Byrneqv
appointed him
vicar general
of the
diocese, the
highest office
under the
bishop. In
1926 the
bishop
appointed
Monsignor
Kelly
president of
St. Mary's
Seminaryqv
in La Porte.
He kept his
post at St.
Anthony's and,
in 1928, left
the seminary
presidency and
returned to
full-time
parish work.
He resigned
his pastorate
and all other
offices on
August 10,
1954, and died
on January 5,
1955; he is
buried in
Magnolia
Cemetery,
Beaumont. A
high school in
Beaumont was
named in his
honor in 1964.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Catholic
Archives of
Texas, Files,
Austin.
Diocese of
Galveston-Houston,
Files,
Houston.
Robert C.
Giles,
Changing
Times: The
Story of the
Diocese of
Galveston-Houston
in
Commemoration
of Its
Founding
(Houston,
1972).
James
F. Vanderholt
- Handbook
of Texas
Online,
s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/KK/fke52.html (accessed
March 3,
2008).
(NOTE: "s.v."
stands for sub
verbo, "under
the word.")
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